Pogo and Technology

Cartoonists open windows into the soul of a society. One such artist, Walt Kelly, drew Pogo speaking to our species as to where much blame for new technology and new tools is found.

Today the Pogo meme challenges the common understanding of new and rapidly growing technology as dangerous, even evil. The enemy is not new technology, it is not smartphones, AI, or any number of other tools. The enemy is us.
The human race is fairly unique in its continual creation and usage of tools. Whether it was the first knife, hammer, fishing hook, etc., our species projected our abilities and expanded our growth through discovery, creation, and use of tools. But tools enter life without souls. There is no internal, driving energy moving a tool towards good or bad outcomes. And, borrowing a phrase from my son, the larger the bandwidth and resolution of new tools and technology, the greater the importance of developing cultural habits and structures to enhance good uses and limit bad uses.
When a new tool is developed, or as new technology comes into the marketplace, there is a (largely unmet) need to develop habits and culture for that technology. The urgency and importance of this need is proportional to the bandwidth and resolution of the technology. It is interesting to note the propensity for man, usually older, people today to project blame onto the technology. New tools and technology can create value, but they can also be monetized, exploited, and abused. Another proverb, sometimes attributed to Lincoln, notes that to “test a man’s character, give him power.” Perhaps tools and technology, when created by humanity, test our character.
Unfortunately, that is not what happens today. New technology becomes part of the “blame it or claim it” game. AI, Smartphones, or ?? is either “blamed” for every conceivable societal and personal ill or “claimed” as a mystical magical solution to said ills. There is scant talk on how to understand and humanize new technology. Indeed, this bad habit of “claiming or blaming” is accelerating and continues to obscure the challenge of projecting the better angels of human character into the tool / technology .
How does humanity’s soul express itself as it looks at new technology? Through the uses we put that technology to. Our species perceives both good and evil potential in how tools are used. It is our species’ soul that drives the usages of technology – whether the sudden discovery of what AI can do on is used to feed the world or accelerates an entirely new arms race.

We have met the enemy, and them is us!

COVID-19 AND FRACTALS

Fractal patterns and random chance…

Life is a progression of random events that can be seen as a fractal across a wide range of scales. This pattern is mistakenly viewed as linear, or even as causal. Rather than seeing a fractal pattern of an unending repetition of a random event, humans somewhat helplessly keep looking for a plan where none exists.

The Covid-19 virus is an excellent example. Corona viruses randomly appear throughout human history as a fractal across a wide range of scales. The urge to see these random occurrences as the result of some cause may have gone “viral.”

What is this seemingly compulsive urge to find “an explanation” in random events? The “reason” for the spread of a virus is because it is a virus. It’s distribution throughout human societies is a series of chance events following fractal patterns, not linear events following causal patterns. It is our species that continually looks for “an answer,” “a cause,” or “something to blame.” Is there a cause for that obsession or is it a random event?

Easter 2020

Covid-19 with its illness, death, disruption, economic pains and social distancing unimaginably disrupted Easter 2020. It can also transform it.

Disruption: Easter without family and friends

Covid-19’s first disruption to Easter is the massive inhibition of people getting together to eat, share, sing, play and enjoy. Instead, this virus disrupted a celebration of life with a stark reminder of death, pain and isolation. Many families, especially in virus hot spots, are living tragedies that tear and gnaw at the soul. Even in wartime it is possible for groups of people to come together and share some food and fellowship and reflect on a two thousand year old Easter narrative. We probably have to go back to the plague or other major pandemics to find a similar situation. The disruption brings isolation rather than fellowship, pain and suffering rather than celebration. It is a difficult time.

In the northern hemisphere Easter is also connected with spring, with Easter egg hunts, new spring clothes, the end of the cold. Covid-19’s rude intrusion pushes many to walking and biking and perhaps rediscovering the beauty, the majesty of seasonal change. It is a difficult time who’s disruption can let us rediscover what is forgotten.

The disruption is stimulating a massive search for alternatives. The common, now “viral” option is to “go virtual.” Millions today are chatting, texting, video conferencing, whatever they can do to pivot and enjoy some sort of Easter fellowship. While not the same, there is something to that.

Disruption: Easter without Liturgy

The second disruption comes with the almost universal inability to participate in some sort of liturgy, some place of worship where groups of people come together to reflect on the religious meaning of the holiday. The physical churches today are mostly empty.

This surprising transformation is also going virtual. Most churches are using internet channels to share ancient traditions with their members. Social distancing practices are forging new experiences. Music, participation, preaching, sacred space, all are in a new space.

How important is physical closeness in binding a community together? We are a social species; physical closeness and sharing are essential to the way we are put together. When we come out of this, there will be lots of questions.

Transformation: the polarization spiral

Whether the economy, addiction, depression, many of life’s major challenges tend to rotate in downward spirals. One worsening example is the polarization of society, often called “the culture wars.” Partisan sentiment serves as an accelerant to this phenomena.

Covid-19 may fracture that spiral. Rather than human society calculating how to get out of it, the need for cooperation regardless of partisan identity or preference holds out the tantalizing possibility of inverting the spiral from downward to upward. There may not be an option other that to move away from division and polarization and pivot to cooperation for the common good.

Covid-19 may also reveal deeper fissures in society. While the virus itself respects no human identity marker (gender, race, class), society’s use of resources and response to the virus will shed light on whether that response is universal or narrow. It is both an enormous risk for further societal fracturing and an opportunity for societal healing.

Transformation: the narcissist spiral

Society’s second downward spiral is the decent into the tyranny of the “I.” Egoism, narcissism, the lack of a balanced concern for the common good as well as the now infamous WIIFM (what’s in it for me). Biology as well as theology insist that humankind is a social species; both warn of the consequences of this downward spiral. Perhaps it is something of the message of Easter to reflect that a virus may transform that spiral upward.

Transformation: the consumption spiral

Society’s third downward spiral is the obsessive search for happiness in the consumption of goods. While there are many recent alarms on obsessive consumption, the spiral showed few signs of slowing or inverting. A virus, social distancing, loss of those close to us, all offer the possibility of turning the spiral around. Happiness can be found in so many places: music, games, literature, cultural events; all of them are going to be more accessible as the virus put the breaks on conspicuous consumption.

After the virus?

What will Easter be like in the future? What growth will virtual tools provide for fellowship and sharing? How will the virus change our awareness of life, death, and what they both mean?

The virus will spotlight two societal players: the scientific/technology network charged with developing a response, and the leadership network charged with finding a path forward. Leadership in particular faces challenges here. Can it break free of the “blame it or claim it” game prevalent for decades and characteristic of the “culture wars” and instead illuminate a path forward for the greater good of society? Both share risks if they fail but opportunities if they succeed.

Author: grumpygringo